Local human input for AI agents

BackPing

A macOS menu-bar app that lets Codex, Claude, and other MCP clients ask you questions through Telegram or Slack when they would otherwise get stuck.

Download DMG Set Up Locally Security Model

Flow

Agents ask. You answer. Work resumes.

1

Local MCP

BackPing exposes a bearer-protected MCP server on 127.0.0.1.

2

Chat Relay

Questions are sent to your configured Telegram chat or Slack DM thread.

3

Typed Answer

Your reply is routed back to the exact pending request, even when multiple agents ask at once.

Boundaries

Narrow by design

BackPing does not execute commands, start jobs, stream logs, or expose a terminal. It only asks the configured user for input and returns the answer to the local MCP caller.

  • Localhost-only MCP server
  • Bearer-token MCP authentication
  • macOS Keychain for chat tokens
  • Telegram and Slack user allowlisting

Install

Run it as a local Mac app

npm install
npm run dev
npm run package:mac
npm run dmg

Download the latest unsigned DMG from GitHub Releases, or build it locally. Unsigned builds are intended for local and internal testing. macOS may require right-click, then Open, on first launch.